Officially TOTALLY potty trained

I'm declaring today that Josiah is officially totally potty-trained. We've been having trouble with him going poop in the potty and now he's done it several days in a row all on his own without us trying to get him to! Today he said, "Mom, I gotta go potty!" So, he goes in the bathroom and a few mintues later he yells, "Cool! I pooped in the potty Mom, come look at it!" I've never gotten so excited about looking at poop in the potty!! I'm so relieved and feel like it's time to throw a party!!! ( I didn't think you needed to see a picture of it!!)

My Little Rainbow in the Big Rainbow t-shirt

Last night Josiah received his Rainbow t-shirt at church - he couldn't wait to show me! Of course it's too big, but it's the smallest one they can order. It'll probably still be big on him once he's out of Rainbows! Now, why do they make them so big? Guess they think they'll want to wear them when they get into Royal Rangers? Yeah, right! Well, for now, he's thrilled about his new rainbow t-shirt and insisted on wearing it today. The other day he probably said his Rainbow pledge 25 times! So, as we're in Walmart this morning, my little rainbow wasn't quite following his Rainbow pledge. I kept thinking, "What happend to - 'As a Rainbow I will be a good helper, pleasing Jesus everyday'?" So, once we got home I asked him, "Josiah, are you a rainbow?" And he says, "Nah! I just a got a rainbow shirt!"

On another note, I'm having Josiah takes naps again. He couldn't make it through the entire day without crashing by 5 pm. Then, he'd be cranky and wouldn't want to eat dinner, so we're going back to naps. Life is so much more pleasant when they both have a nap! He's not resisiting either, so I'm glad for that! And Josh is so excited about his new big boy bed that he laughs when he gets in it! What more could I ask for?

A memory

Last night we took the boys to the beach and we were writing their names in the sand when I remembered writing Jadon's name in the sand when I was pregnant with him. (for those of you who may not know, Jadon was our first son and he lived for 2 weeks due to being premature) I was reminded again how blessed I am to have Josiah and Joshua and what miracles they are to us. Jadon's birthday is coming up on Sept. 1 and he would be 5 yrs. old this year. So, I took pictures of Josiah and Joshua sitting by their names in the sand so I can remember the day Ronnie and I wrote Jadon's name in the sand. God has been very good to us and I can't wait to see Jadon again and introduce him to his little brothers. We love you Jadon David.

Adventure Island

Yesterday we took the boys to Adventure Island waterpark in Tampa. We had a blast! You need to check out all our Adventure Island pics on My pics link. I loved watching Josiah go down the slides all by himself and holding Josh in our laps listening to him giggle the whole way down! We could hardly keep up with Josiah. He went down one slide and practically ran up the steps to do it all over again! Ronnie and I took turns going down one slide by ourselves, but the real fun in it all is watching the boys have the time of their lives! We didn't even get out of the parking lot before they both fell asleep.

And Josh's crib went down last night. He's been sleeping great in his new big boy bed - good-bye crib!!!

Transistions

Yesterday we put a big boy twin bed in Josh's room along with his crib. When Josiah transitioned to a big boy bed, we had him sleep in the bed for naps and in his crib at night for a week or so or until we felt like it was "ok" to take the crib down. So, today is Josh's first time to sleep in his twin bed for a nap. When I laid him down, he started to get up and I thought he was going to get down off the bed, but he didn't and I just laid him back down and off to sleep he went. I checked in on him later to make sure he was asleep and there he was cuddled up in that big bed sucking his thumb! Yes, he still sucks his thumb when he goes to sleep!

At the same time, Josiah seems to be growing out of his nap time, so it seems. Last night he kept getting up out of bed and he never does that. He even got up once we were in bed and asleep and was looking in the refrigerator! Guess he just wasn't tired or he didn't eat enough for dinner! So, today I'm allowing him to skip naptime. We'll see how it goes! I'm not going through what we did last night though again tonight! He's going to be really tired tonight!

So, today is a kind of sad day b/c I see my boys growing up too fast. Before I know it, they'll be having girls over and driving! Lord, come quick!

Going Home

I'm glad to be going home to my husband tomorrow. He got home today and me and the boys are still in Indy. And once again I get to make that flight with the boys by myself! But, I'll be soooo anxious to get home to see Ronnie. I got to see him almost every day, but not really spend quality time with him. Being away from home is hard and I give props to all those single moms out there. I don't think I could do it without literally going insane! I managed to get sick yesterday with a cold, but I did enjoy my time away from normal routine. I'm always ready to get back to normal life.

Our youth AIM teams did an awesome job working in the city of Indy. I'm proud of them and look forward to the testimonies they have. I know God worked in their lives this week and I pray that what they received this week will spread throughout our youth group and that our group will be stronger because of what God has done this week! God is so good!

Flight

Last Friday I took the boys on a plane by myself. First time to ever tackle it on my own...so I wasn't really looking forward to it. We flew to Indy to visit my family and Ronnie is driving some of our youth down on Tues. for the AIM missions trip here in Indy and Convoy of Hope.

As we were getting our tickets, the guy at the counter asked Ronnie if he'd want to go with me to the gate. I was so relieved! Security is not fun with little ones and a stroller. Having to take everyone's shoes off and hold Josh while you fold up the stroller and get all your things in the bins and back out again. It's hard enough with both of us, I don't know how I would've survived it w/o Ronnie. So, I was very grateful that he could share the load with me! An airline guy helped carry Josiah's car seat on the plane since I was carrying Josh and the diaper bag, so that helped too and then a flight attendant held Josh while I fastened in Josiah's car seat. The ride was going pretty good until the last 15 min. when we had to put the DVD player away and Josh did not want anything to do with sitting in my lap. At least we had an extra seat in between us thanks to the guy who ended up moving to another seat! At least he was kind about it. Can't say that for the people in front of us who kept getting their seats kicked by the boy's feet. A little embarrassing, but people should try to be a little more understanding. Finally after Josh stopped crying he stuck his thumb in his mouth and went to sleep for the last 5 min. Poor guy was pulling on his ears as we were heading down, I knew he was hurting, but no one else did. I just wanted to shout out, "my kids ears are hurting, that's why he's crying!!!" But, I refranied from doing such a thing. So, I waited till everyone was off the plane so they could help me carry my car seat and we got off. Praise Jesus, it was over! So, I get to do it all over again next Monday - please put me on your prayer list!!! The whole thing just made me grateful that I have a wonderful husband who helps me whenever I need it and helps share the load with me. Just like our heavenly father will take the load off of us, if we just ask and allow Him to help us when we just have too much to handle. We're not supposed to handle it all - He wants to take it from us, but we don't always give Him that option. I'm so grateful that I can lean on Him at any time and He will come and rescue me.

Thunder

So, the last few thunderstorms we've had in the middle of the night have woken up our son, Josiah. He's never been afraid of thunder until now. He came in our room at 5 AM scared and wanting to get in the bed with us. My heart melts b/c he wants us to protect him. And every time it thunders he gets closer and holds his little teddy bear tighter. So, a little later we put him back in his bed and he says, "Will you lay by me?" How sweet.

That's how Jesus is with his children. He wants to protect us from harm and keep us safe and he loves when we get closer to Him. He wants to provide our every need if we would just trust Him. It's true when we are going through trials or are afraid we tend to get closer to Jesus, but I want to be close to Him at ALL times.